Strategies
This page is meant for documenting various strategies for playing Dice Soccer. It and its subpages are the only section of the wiki that should contain blatant spoilers (e.g. example team configurations for beating specific matches). Overall Strategy General Strategies *Have fun! Most of all this game is about fun. If you find yourself taking any part of it too seriously or getting too frustrated, maybe it's time to take a break. *You'll notice throughout the game (with the exception, perhaps, of the first Training match) that opponent teams are almost always populated by stronger players than you have access to. But this doesn't mean that the odds are against you. In fact, you have the following going for you: **You can be smarter than they are about assembling teams with players whose numbers and powers complement each other (even if those individual players are weaker). A more compatible team almost always beats a more powerful team. **You can be much smarter than the computer about how you handle your die results, which the computer AI does more or less at random: ***Which players to apply powers to ***What dice to reroll ***When to Play Ahead Team-Building Strategy Centre Forwards Teams are built around centre forwards. There are really only a limited number of good centre forwards as you progress through the game (e.g. Barney Hulligan, Ray Beeze, Blanc Bribery). First step is choosing a good Centre Forward, and then build the rest of your team (at least your forward line) around it. *More than anything else, can the centre's die roll beat the Goal Keeper's? Many of the advanced goalkeepers have 3 as their *smallest* die, so unless your centre has a few 4s and 5s, you're not going to make much progress. Also keep in mind that some goal keepers' Powers change their effective die distributions in a predictable way, so [Powered's x2 on a roll of 3 means that his 233455 is actually a 266455. You could spend a lot of goal attempts waiting for that 2 unless you have a centre with a lot of 6+ rolls. *Ray Beeze is under-appreciated in the early-mid game because he has so many 1s. But "close" doesn't work for centre forwards, since they have to act alone. A 3 is no better than a 1 if it's consistently lower than what the GK is rolling. But Ray Beeze's 6 and 7 will be almost guaranteed to score about 1/3 of the time against most goalkeepers, which is still better odds than someone with all 4s even though it looks more risky. *As an important secondary concern, it's good to find powers that will trigger alone. Two guys with an "x2" on them may look roughly equal, but if one of them triggers on a pair, but the other triggers on a roll of 3, the second one is much better as a centre forward. *Similarly, if the power can trigger via a single die roll, but it's useless for a standalone player, then don't get too excited about it. The Shielding power is useless against goalkeepers with no attack powers. *The Possessive Girlfriend Entourage member increases your roll by 1 against the goalkeeper turning ties into valuable goals, and close misses into ties. Forwards It's good to have forwards that compliment the CF, because the forwards play the most of the game and to win you need lots of goal attemps to score. Besides, the best defense is a good offense. Goalkeeper There isn't much strategy needed for goalies, as they only have to win against 1 player, the CF, rather than 3, similar to other lines of players. But the fact is they have to dominate their opposition or risk being scored against, because they are your last line of defense. Although pretty much straightforward, there are plenty of goalies to choose from and some goalies will look roughly equal, making it hard for you to decide. Don't forget that you also have to distribute your smackeroos among other things. Here are 2 tips on choosing a goalie: #Choose a goalie that is within your cash limit. You don't want to get broke and spend precious months grinding for cash. Remember, you need to score to win, not just defend. #When you come across goalies that look roughly equal, use the tip above. Or rather, select the one whose rolls are more consistent. Defenders Player Hiring Strategy *'Don't buy everything you see' - Just like in real life, if you've just won a tournament the temptation may be great to spend all that money on whatever player you can afford. Don't. There's not enough cash in this game to hire everyone, so you need to save it up for the most effective lineups you can get. More below. *'Forwards First' - When deciding how to invest your hard-earned cash, the best investment is in your front line. Think about it: in order to win, you need at least one goal, and since forwards are the players used for kickoffs, to get through the opponent's defender line, and against the goalkeeper, you can literally play a whole game using only your forwards, as long as your forwards are strong enough to keep the opponent from ever reaching your defenders. Therefore almost all your money should go into good forwards and/or midfielders. *'Buy lineups, not players' - Even the best, most expensive player is practically useless if he's paired up with players whose rolls don't trigger his power. When shopping for players, it's best to buy them in batches of complementary powers and numbers so that you can deploy them together. See the Team Building section for ideas, and shop accordingly. Dice-Rolling Strategy You don't have much control over the die results themselves, but you have a lot of control after the die results come up. Power Selection Re-rolling The computer AI seems to usually re-roll the lowest die. This is a decent rule of thumb, but you can often come out ahead through more strategic rolling. The Assist power is one of the most important powers in the entire game because it's the only way to trigger more than 3 powers in one roll, but you have to use it correctly. Here are some guidelines: *Most importantly, look for combos and power triggers. **As an extreme example: Ray Beeze gives a Through Play power if all your dice are odd numbers. On a roll of 1, 3, 6, it will be tempting to re-roll that 1, because it's the lowest, but if you've got the ball, and that 6 is on a die with lots of odd numbers on it (e.g. Ray Beeze himself), rerolling the 6 is often the better move. In fact, if the opposing team has a much higher total than you're going to reach anyway, it might be the *only* way to win that play. *In general, know your line's die values. If you have a roll of 5, 4, 3, without knowing the values of all the die faces, you'd be tempted to reroll the 3 because it's the lowest. But what if the 3 is the highest value on that die (meaning that rerolling can only make it the same or lower), but the 4 die has some much higher values and/or bonuses (e.g. a +2 face) on it? Know your dice. *Sometimes you can create re-rolling "chains" which are extraordinarily powerful. Most of the work to set these up happens when building your team, but then if you don't re-roll the right dice, it's a waste. Typically re-roll chains involve combining an Assist power with some kind of power triggered by a pair, all odds, or odd/even sum. If you get multiple rerolls on a single roll, use one of them to "set up" the other half of the combo chain (e.g. the other half of the pair) and then a reroll for your reroll die to start it triggering that pair over and over. Playing Ahead The computer AI will *always* continue rerolling if it has the option, even if this will most likely result in a weaker result. You have the option to "quit while you're ahead." Here are some specifics: *Most obviously: If you've already beat your opponent and the opponent has no more die rolls, then STOP. The only exceptions to this, ever, are: **You might still reroll if you're trying to beat one of the Achievements related to rolling a particular die roll, if you're already close. **You might still reroll if you're currently leading the game, are legitimately afraid of losing that lead, and want to run the clock down. Money-Making Strategy Unless you're spending real-world money in the store for game credits, Dice Soccer can be a very money poor game. You've often unlocked far more players than you can afford to hire, but sometimes one of those expensive players is exactly what you need to get through a tough spot. Here are some pointers: *Before you start grinding for cash: make sure there's no other way to reach the objective you're after. Advanced players are very expensive compared to your typical winnings earlier in the game, and there are no teams in the game you can't beat as long as you've been buying the *right* players with your winnings along the way. Cash-farming should be a last resort, because it's truly a grind. *You get the most money from winning, a little over half that much for ties, and nothing for losing. Find a specific team or teams that you can beat most comfortably in the most advanced season possible. Differences in payoffs between seasons make grinding in a lower season than you can access almost worthless, unless you absolutely cannot beat any teams in your current season. If you have already a lot of money and you want to make EVEN MORE, invest in an Orlando Donohue and Vain Looney lineup, with Callente Rollovo as central forward. With Hilly Will and Shirley Tweety as your entourages, play against Aloha. This will give you 125000 coins each 30-minute game. The defense line is not important as you will definitely score more goals than concede. In eight games, you can make a million! Example Teams This section is for listing player groupings (especially groups of forwards) who have been proven for defeating certain tough teams or for gaining tough awards (e.g. 6 goals in one game). Good Lineups Winning Against Specific Opponents Winning Awards Full Teams Strategies Commonly Used Timeline of Players These timelines will help you figure out stuff you need to know when you want to buy a player. GK Timeline Willy the Kid Ikea Quesadillas _______|_______________________________________________________________________________|_______ Lame Awesome Category:Content